Thursday, November 4, 2010

Thursday TV/Media Notes

It certainly looks like there is some fun on the horizon as the NASCAR TV pack travels to the Texas Motor Speedway. Let's get right to it.

SPEED has announced that Krista Voda will be stepping into the TV booth on Saturday to call the two Sprint Cup Series practice sessions. While this may not be a big deal to some, it certainly is a big deal to Voda. This studio and pre-race TV veteran deserves a chance to get her feet wet in a multi-hour live telecast with cars on the track. Hope she makes the best of this opportunity.

Meanwhile, Steve Byrnes takes a break from the Race Hub studio and travels to Texas as well. He will host his former show Trackside on Friday night and also handle the commentary from the TV booth for Nationwide and Cup Series qualifying. Terry and Bobby Labonte are the Trackside guests.

Click here for some big news. Good old NASCAR.com comes through at the strangest times and for the strangest reasons. After all but ignoring the Camping World Truck Series for the entire season, suddenly there appears a full-blown Race Buddy application for the final three races. Well, not going to look a gift-horse in the mouth, so let's have fun with it.

We are still waiting for all parties to sort out the online streaming issues for this Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race in Texas. Last weekend, an online video feed of the Talladega Cup race appeared for a while on NASCAR.com and then ended well before the checkered flag.

As some fans may know, ESPN has started to stream online ESPN and ESPN2 directly to the home computers of Time Warner Cable subscribers. No more getting up and moving to the TV, simply click those two networks online and watch them live anytime.

Needless to say, that puts NASCAR races online for some folks but not for others. That is simply not a good equation for the fans, the sanctioning body or even the official online video rights-holders, Turner Sports. Hopefully, we will have some info to pass along about this weekend's possible online streaming availability shortly.

One little blip for you Kenny Schrader fans. He swings by the Race Hub studios to check-in with what is going on in his world and maybe offer some comments about current NASCAR topics Thursday at 7PM ET on SPEED. The show re-airs 11PM Pacific Time.

This is going to be a funky weekend for SPEED's NASCAR RaceDay. Due to coverage of the F-1 Brazilian Grand Prix, RaceDay will split into two shows of one hour each. The first will be 9:30AM ET on Sunday with John Roberts, Kenny Wallace, Kyle Petty, Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler. The second will be at 1PM or directly after the F-1 race coverage. This could get interesting.

Saturday night SPEED is taking a swing at four hours of live racing from the Charlotte Motor Speedway dirt track. Dave Despain anchors an ambitious telecast featuring the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, Late Models and the new Super DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds. If the weather and the track both cooperate, this could be a night of outstanding TV.

I'm not a real big fan of this show, but just taking a moment to pass this along. On NASCAR Smarts this weekend on SPEED, it will be Kenny and Steven Wallace taking on Kyle Petty and Rutledge Wood. Talk among yourselves.

Over at ESPN, this weekend it will be Nicole Briscoe hosting NASCAR Now before and after the TMS race on Sunday. Ricky Craven will be in the ESPN2 studio with Briscoe while Marty Smith and Shannon Spake will report from the track. The preview show is at 9AM and the wrap-up at 10PM ET.

ESPN also announced there will be no changes to the network's on-air line-up for this weekend even after a 25% ratings drop for the Talladega coverage. Marty Reid will call the race with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Allen Bestwick is the infield host with Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. Tim Brewer is in the Tech Garage, while Dr. Jerry Punch, Vince Welch, Dave Burns and Jamie Little handle pit road.

As always, we welcome your comments on the above topics. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

That is very cool news about RaceBuddy for the trucks -- that should be available for all the races for all series. I wish they'd work out the bugs so we can all have the live streaming option - since listening to the races on TV has become such a wasteland. I didn't really expect ESPN to make any changes - at least not before the end of the season. NASCAR needs to make some changes, too, because they are bleeding fans.

Hopefully Ms Wheeler can "kill off" the two biggest shills on TV and replace them with somebody that's competent and unbiased. I know that's asking for a lot but considering how bad the ratings have been this season and the number of complaints about unprofessional and incompetent commentators, dumping the two shills would go a long ways towards improving things IMO.

@51 yr. fan- This is at least the 2nd year thay SPEED has covered the Saturday Night of the World Finals. It should be a good show as usual.

Good to to Truck Buddy up and running.

If Schrader is going to be on Race Hub to talk about what is going on with his racing, he will probably mention the World Finals this weekend. He might talk NASCAR, but this is probably more to promote this weekend's races at CMS.

I can't believe SPEED is pre-empting Nationwide qualifying for 'Race in 60', 'Trackside' and 'Nascar Hot Wired'. There are over 100 hours during the week when the track is dormant to air taped specialty shows and Fox's talent yelling over each other. Unthinkable some of the decisions these TV folks make.

How can they keep feeding us a Wallace or a Waltrip and still wonder why the ratings keep dropping? It doesn't take a rocket scientist. Some of us complain but the great majority just go elsewhere. I think using Krista and some other lesser known talents is a good idea. We need some people who can tell us what is happening without becoming the story themselves. The formerly "famous" talking heads always make themselves the story at the expense of the event they are covering or participating in.

JD, watching the beginning of Hub and there's Danielle talking about if this scenario happens or that scenario happens with the 3 drivers that could possibly win the chase and it's so far fetched. Just tell us about ALL the drivers, pullllease.

ESPN also announced there will be no changes to the network's on-air line-up for this weekend even after a 25% ratings drop for the Talladega coverage.

Just like when we were all begging Disney/ESPN to put Dr. Jerry Punch back on pit road where he really shines, I do not expect them to make any changes while the season is still running especially at this late point. However, a 25% drop in ratings for Talladega -- Talladega for crying out loud -- is screaming for some big changes during the off-season both in the TV world we discuss here as well as with the on-track product in general. I just hope that it does not take three years for ESPN to pull the trigger like they did on moving Dr. Punch or I fear that our beloved sport is the one that is going to have "The Big One."